Dependent People Research Articles

Facilitators for increasing dental attendance of people from vulnerable groups: a rapid review of evidence relevant to the UK

AbstractObjective To rapidly review facilitators of access for vulnerable groups and to evaluate their effectiveness.Methods Data sources: MEDLINE via Ovid. Publications in English from 2000. Data selection: Research involving ‘vulnerable groups' relevant to UK health systems, with a primary outcome of increasing attendance. Data extraction: One author extracted and tabulated data. These were audited by a second author. Data synthesis: A narrative synthesis was produced.Results Data from 31 studies were available for ten vulnerable groups: people with learning, physical or sensory disabilities (n = 8); people experiencing homelessness (n = 6); prisoners (n = 4); asylum-seekers and refugees (n = 3); people living in socioeconomically deprived areas (n = 3); people with severe mental health conditions (n = 2); vulnerable children (n = 2); dependent older people (n = 1); Gypsy, Roma or Traveller groups (n = 1); and people with drug dependency (n = 1). Many facilitators involved organisational reform and more integration of health, social and other services. Other facilitators included: modification of premises; team development and skill-mix use; and awareness of needs and flexible services to meet them. Few studies evaluated effectiveness.Conclusion Although facilitators for access for vulnerable groups have been proposed, there is little evidence to support or refute their effectiveness. Efforts are needed to promote access for vulnerable groups in the UK with evaluation plans embedded.

Dependency and Elderly Care: The Cost of the Long-Term Care System in the Context of the SDGs

The rapid ageing of populations around the world is creating complex challenges for national governments. The establishment of sustainable and equitable long-term care systems for old and dependent people is one of the main issues of social policy in developed countries. The aim of this work is to define a cost model for residential and day care centres for dependent persons in Cantabria (Spain). The cost model will make it possible to establish the theoretical cost of attending to the needs of the different types of dependent persons in the different types of care centres, and the methodology used could be extrapolated to other regions. The daily cost per user for elderly residential care is €53.72. The cost per user in elderly day centres (5 days) is 32.56 euros. In residential centres for people with disabilities, the values range between €47.41 and €75.25, depending on the category of the centre. In three categories of centres, the public price is not enough to cover the cost (physical disability, intellectual disability, mental illness—low care); therefore, the administration should reconsider their public prices for these kinds of centres if they want to really contribute to the sustainability of residential care centres. This research will have important implications for policy makers in the context of the fulfillment of the SDGs and where better support for old and disabled people and their carers, as well as fair and efficient financing of social care services, are essential to address the current and future challenges of dependency.

Factors associated with the maintenance in food texture for dependent older people with dysphagia living in nursing home - A retrospective cohort study.

Maintaining the texture of the food that nursing home residents eat is critical for maintaining quality of life and preventing malnutrition. The aim of the present study was to identify the conditions necessary for maintaining food texture for this population. The study included 143 people for whom reevaluation 1-year post-baseline was possible from among 256 dependent older people who consumed solid food on admission to a nursing home (baseline). The age, sex, primary disease, activities of daily living, nutritional status, oral status, swallowing ability, primitive reflexes, and food texture of the participants were determined. The participants who ate pureed or jelly after 1 year were identified and evaluated to determine factors related to maintenance of a solid diet. A total of 21 participants (14.7%) changed to a pureed or jelly diet after 1 year. Multivariate analysis showed good activities of daily living (p<.05), good swallowing ability (p<.05), and maintained nutritional status (p<.05) to be correlated with solid food maintenance. Maintaining activities of daily living, feeding and swallowing ability, and nutritional status appear to be important factors for the maintenance of a solid diet.

Specialized pharmaceutical care in social health centers in COVID-19 times

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating effect on the nursing homes for dependent older people. The difficulty of management of this crisis is aggravated by the frailty of the people served and by the specific characteristics of the care area, mainly the fact of not being integrated into the health system.The objective of this work is to describe the pharmaceutical care developed by a hospital pharmacy service established in a nursing home and, from a more global perspective, analyze the strengths and weaknesses found from the various experiences of hospital pharmacy in all spanish autonomous communities to deal with this pandemic.Specialized pharmaceutical care has provided rigor in the validation and treatments review processes from a comprehensive perspective, maximizing safety and collaborating in the establishment of the therapeutic intensity degree most appropriate to the individual situation, has ensured the availability of all necessary medications, has collaborated in the acquisition and management of personal protective equipment, has been able to adapt the dispensation processes to the internal nursing homes sectorization and has facilitated the coordination between the nursing home and the health system.It is clear that the crisis casued by COVID-19 has put relevance of the need to integrate the social-health level into the health system. And also, the contribution of specialized pharmaceutical care in improving healthcare coverage and coordination with health services has highlighted the urgency of developing the current legislation, prioritizing the establishment of pharmacy services able to provid specialized and specific care for this area, so that it meets healthcare needs and is integrated into the health system.

Association between Social Support and Depressive Symptoms in Informal Caregivers of Adult and Older Dependents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Social support is an important determinant of a carer's mental health. In recent decades, despite many studies reporting on the relationship between social support and depressive symptoms in informal caregivers of adult and older dependents, there are no systematic reviews synthesizing the available evidence. The purpose of the present study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis on the relationship between social support and depressive symptoms in informal caregivers of adults and older dependent people. We searched PubMed, CINAHL (EBSCO), PsycINFO (ProQuest), and Scopus, up to 15 January 2023 for studies. We applied no date or language limits to our search. A random-effects model was used to pool effect estimates. The included studies were also independently assessed for quality. Publication bias was evaluated by funnel plots, Egger's regression test, and the Trim and Fill method. Ninety-three studies were included in the review, reporting on a total of 15,431 informal caregivers. We found a moderate negative association between perceived social support and caregiver depressive symptoms (78 studies; r = -0.35, 95% CI = -0.39, -0.31; low heterogeneity and low risk of publications bias) and a small negative association between received social support and caregiver self-reported depressive symptoms (12 studies; r = -0.14, 95% CI = -0.20, -0.07; low heterogeneity and low risk of publications bias). Our results indicate that social support is a clinically relevant construct for carer well-being and an important protective factor for depressive symptoms in informal caregivers of adult and older dependents.

Learning Experiences of Future Healthcare Support Workers Enrolled in a Dual Mode Vocational Training Programme.

With life expectancy increasing, there is a growing need to train healthcare support workers who provide care for dependent people in healthcare centres and at home. This qualitative study, based on Gadamer's hermeneutic philosophy, aimed to understand the learning experiences of future healthcare support workers currently enrolled in an intermediate, dual modality vocational training programme with regard to caring for dependent people. Convenience sampling was used to recruit the participants, who were all students enrolled in an intermediate level vocational training programme in care for dependent people. Fourteen in-depth interviews and one focus group session were conducted with the students. Atlas.ti 8.0 software was used to analyse the participants' accounts. The students highlighted the vocational nature of their studies and the need to feel competent and useful as a healthcare support worker for dependent people. Practice-based learning and the need for training in core competences are complementary and essential elements of the training process. The participants' previous experiences were key in determining their academic trajectory and reflect their motivation and interest to learn. However, they feel vulnerable, unprotected, and lack training in psychosocial skills. Educational institutions should focus training programmes on the practice and development of psychosocial skills that motivate students to acquire transversal competences.

Vitamin D deficiency and SARS‑CoV‑2 infection: A retrospective case-Control study with big-data analysis covering March 2020 to March 2021.

Vitamin D may have immunomodulatory functions, and might therefore play a role in the pathogenesis of acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, no conclusive evidence exists regarding its impact on the prevalence of this infection, the associated course of disease, or prognosis. To study the association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and vitamin D deficiency in patients attending a tertiary university hospital, and to examine the clinical course of infection and prognosis for these patients. This non-interventional, retrospective study, which involved big-data analysis and employed artificial intelligence to capture data from free text in the electronic health records of patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2, was undertaken at a tertiary university hospital in Madrid, Spain, between March 2020 and March 2021. The variables recorded were vitamin D deficiency, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, course of disease, and prognosis. Of the 143,157 patients analysed, 36,261 had SARS-CoV-2 infection (25.33%) during the study period, among whom 2,588 (7.14%) had a vitamin D deficiency. Among these latter patients, women (OR 1.45 [95%CI 1.33-1.57]), adults over 80 years of age (OR 2.63 [95%CI 2.38-2.91]), people living in nursing homes (OR 2.88 [95%CI 2.95-3.45]), and patients with walking dependence (OR 3.45 [95%CI 2.85-4.26]) appeared in higher proportion. After adjusting for confounding factors, a higher proportion of subjects with SARS-CoV-2 plus vitamin D deficiency required hospitalisation (OR 1.38 [95%CI 1.26-1.51]), and had a longer mean hospital stay (3.94 compared to 2.19 days in those with normal levels; P = 0.02). A low serum 25(OH) vitamin D concentration in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection is significantly associated with a greater risk of hospitalisation and a longer hospital stay. Among such patients, higher proportions of institutionalised and dependent people over 80 years of age were detected.

평생교육 현장에서의 미술활동이 여성노인의 웰다잉 인식에 미치는 영향

Objectives This study shows the effect of art activities on life of elderly women and their well-dying perception based on the existentialism.&#x0D; Methods This study conducted focus group interview(FGI) with seven elderly women aged 70 or older in D city in Korea and analyzed the phenomenon using Grounded theory by Strauss &amp; Corbin with open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. It was intended to reveal the impact and process of art activities in elderly women on well-dying.&#x0D; Results As a result of the analysis, 66 concepts, 25 subcategories, and 11 core categories were derived. Based on the result, the process of recognizing well-dying by female elderly artists was derived in the final six stages. The derived stages are physical limitations, psychological frustrations, existential confrontation, critical situations, realization of existence, and formation of subjective identity. The main phenomenon of the study revealed by the analysis is art activities at the lifelong education center break away from the meaningless life and worthless being based on existentialism. Throughout concentration and immersion, new expertise was established and was also possible relationship with others through the formation of subjective identity.&#x0D; Conclusions With the establishment of an independent identity through the art activities, elderly women are no longer a passive and weak dependent people, they are the people who have active and leading attitude towards well-dying. The art activities helped to change the perception of being who leads the rest of their lives.

THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF PERSONAL PROTECTION IN STRESS OVERCOMING

Abstract. In the modern world, a person is influenced by many stress factors, which are unfavourable circumstances causing tension. It is assumed that addiction can be both a factor contributing to stress and a consequence of stress. An important aspect of overcoming stress is the use of psychological mechanisms to protect the individual. These mechanisms allow a person to avoid or reduce the negative impact of stress on mental and physical health. The article examines the role of psychological defense mechanisms in overcoming stress in dependent young people (drug addicts and gambling addicts), and in young people who do not have addiction. The article presents the results of the empirical study conducted as part of the final qualification work, aimed to determine the nature of the relationship between psychological mechanisms of personal protection in overcoming stress in men with drug and gambling addiction and men who do not have addiction

Social protection for older persons: an adequacy – comparative perspective

Introduction: This paper presents the social security institutions used by older persons in selected countries from the perspective of the well-being of the elderly. The authors consider social security institutions for older persons to be old-age pension systems and long-term care systems and, to a limited extent, benefits under the health care system, which, although targeted not only at older persons, in many cases have become the starting point for the development of long-term care institutions.Purpose: The aim of this study is to draw attention to the need of a holistic approach in the protection of older persons and the need for further analysis from the perspective of their well-being. The main assumption is that to obtain the protection picture for older persons it is necessary to assess not simply old age pensions but also other benefit systems.Materials and methods: Description of the social security institutions for older persons with the aim to assess the extent of the social protection they provide. In these assessments the authors employ quantitative data as well as the opinions of national and international experts. This methodology draws on a case study approach.Results: (1) Older persons with decreasing pension amounts will face difficulties in the financing or co-financing of their long-term care costs. The health care for older persons often overlaps with long term care. There are requests for the co-ordination of these two institutions, but in practice this is not easy to achieve. Financial incentives as well as institutional traditions play a role in this respect.(2) Countries that have introduced long-term care systems and are facing rising costs are undertaking many studies on the effectiveness or efficiency of their operations. Some countries have introduced long-term care within the context of population ageing, such as in Korea; unlike in Germany, where the system targets all dependent people. (3) The early application of generous solutions (for example in Sweden or Germany) may foster claimant attitudes and hamper the reduction of pension systems. In Eastern countries, such as Korea, on the other hand, poverty levels are very high because older persons were simply not prepared to be left unsupported.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between anxiety symptoms and coping in family carers of dependent people aged 18 and over.

Anxiety symptoms are prevalent in family carers of dependent people. Despite accumulating evidence in the area, there are still inconsistent findings on the association between carer anxiety symptoms and coping strategies. The aim of our study was to systematically analyse the relationship between anxiety symptoms and coping strategies in carers of dependent adults aged 18years and older, and examine possible sources of heterogeneity in the results. The study design was a systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched several international databases (Pubmed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and LILACS) from June 2022 up to February 2023. We followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses statement and performed several subgroup analyses to examine whether study design, cause of dependency and whether or not controlling for various biases influenced results. Forty-one studies were included in the review. We found significant associations between greater use of dysfunctional coping and higher anxiety symptoms. Greater use of problem-focused coping was associated with lower anxiety symptoms in carers of frail older people, but higher anxiety in carers of people surviving cancer. Emotion-focused coping and some of its individual strategies, such as acceptance and positive reappraisal, in probabilistic samples, were associated with lower anxiety symptoms across all groups. Most of the studies included in this review were cross-sectional. Evidence overall indicates that only specific dimensions and strategies of coping are significantly associated with anxiety symptoms in family carers. These findings should be considered when developing future interventions supporting carers.

An Adaptive Large Neighbourhood Search algorithm for a real-world Home Care Scheduling Problem with time windows and dynamic breaks

This paper presents a Home Care Scheduling Problem (from now on HCSP) based on a real case of a care company for elderly and dependent people located in the North of Spain. The problem incorporates many of the common features addressed in the HCSP literature, such as soft and hard time windows for the services, available working time of the caregivers or affinity levels between users and caregivers. However, it also includes other novel characteristics that increase the difficulty of the problem significantly, since the breaks between services will play a key role in the quality of the solutions. To evaluate the solutions, the users welfare will be prioritized over the cost associated with the schedule.The problem has been formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) one but, due to the complexity of the model, it is not possible to solve it for real size instances. Therefore, we have designed a method that combines the Adaptive Large Neighbourhood Search (ALNS) methodology with a heuristic approach necessary to evaluate the objective functions. To analyse the behaviour of the algorithm, a set of computational experiments are carried out under different configurations. First, the MILP formulation and the algorithm have been compared over some standard instances from the literature. Finally, the performance of the algorithm is evaluated over a real case study based on the timetables of the company during some weeks from 2016 to 2017.

Одиночество и социальная поддержка как характеристики социального здоровья и факторы зависимости от социальных сетей у подростков

&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objective. &lt;/strong&gt;The goal of the study was to look at how different levels of social health (loneliness and social support) show up in different ways in terms of how dependent people are on their social networks.&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background. &lt;/strong&gt;Loneliness and social support are considered as indicators of a teenager's social health, characterizing the inner experience of isolation from others and the breadth of the circle of contacts that a teenager can turn to for help. Previously, the question of their relationship in the context of their dependence on social networks was not considered. &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Study design. &lt;/strong&gt;The current study examined the differences in social media addiction, motive, and formal characteristics of social media use among groups of adolescents with different levels of social health (loneliness and social support). &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Participants. &lt;/strong&gt;The study sample was made up of 6405 13&amp;ndash;18-year-olds (&lt;em&gt;M&lt;/em&gt; = 15, &lt;em&gt;SD&lt;/em&gt; = 1,46), 42,2% of them male, who went to school in Yakutsk, which is in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Measurements. &lt;/strong&gt;The following methods were used: the three-point Loneliness Scale, the Social Support Scale, and the Bergen Social Network Addiction Scale. The motives for using social networks and the formal characteristics of their use were identified. &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results. &lt;/strong&gt;Teenagers were put into groups based on how lonely they were and how much social support they had. These groups show that dependence on social networks shows up in various ways. The groups with different levels of loneliness and social support can be identified by the reasons they use social networks and the way they work (how long they use them and how many friends they have). The use of social networks by adolescents with high levels of loneliness and low levels of social support leads to negative results and forms addiction due to the effects of compensation and diminution. Adolescents with low loneliness and high social support, on the other hand, demonstrate positive effects from the use of social networks. &lt;strong&gt;Conclusions. &lt;/strong&gt;Among indicators of social health, low social support for an adolescent may lead to greater dependence on social networks. It was also found that dependence on social networks may be based not on direct communicative motives but on motives aimed at establishing and maintaining ties with a group united by common gaming interests.&lt;/p&gt;

Multimodal home care intervention for dependent older people “Live better at home”: Protocol of a randomized clinical trial

BackgroundThe intensity of the home care interventions for dependent older people offered in Spain may not be sufficient to help keep older people living at home, being the institutionalization in a nursing home (NH) an unavoidable consequence. ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of intensification in home care interventions on users with grade II or III dependency, as well as training for their informal caregivers in order to delay or avoid their institutionalization in a NH. MethodsA randomized clinical trial with two parallel arms and blinded assessment will be conducted at the community level in two municipalities in Catalonia (Spain). The study will include those older people (aged 65 and over) living in the community, with degree II or III of dependency, users of the public home care unwilling to be institutionalized and with a main informal caregiver in charge, who will also participate in the study. The assessments will be performed monthly up to 15 months, when the intervention will be finished. The main outcome will be the time until the willingness for admission to a NH. Secondary variables will be composed of sociodemographic, health, psychosocial, resource use, and follow-up variables. A multivariate Cox regression model will be carried out to estimate the effectiveness of the intervention. DiscussionA multimodal home care intervention could improve the health and psychosocial status of dependent people and their informal caregivers and facilitate their permanence at home. Trial registrationNCT05567965

Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Disproportionately Affect the Most Socioeconomically Vulnerable Areas of Brazil?

Objective: To analyze the spatial pattern of the incidence of COVID-19 in association with social determinants of health (SDH) in the Northeast Region of Brazil during the first year of the pandemic. Methods: We conducted an ecological analytical study that included notifications made between 27 March 2020 and 27 March 2021. The data analysis used two global regression models: the ordinary least squares (OLS) and spatial lag model and the geographically weighted multiscale regression model (GWMSR). Results: We observed that the Gini index, illiteracy rate, percentages of people living below the poverty line, people in households who were vulnerable to poverty, and dependent elderly people are predictors of a higher incidence of COVID-19 in Northeast Brazil. Conclusions: Results of this study may contribute to generating new hypotheses for studies focusing on the syndemic process and for the formulation of intersectoral public policies targeting the population at greatest vulnerability to minimize the impact of the disease.

Social variables for replication of studies using mean scores of social support, self-care, and fibromyalgia knowledge: a cross-sectional study.

To investigate biopsychosocial variables that contribute to explaining social support, self-care, and fibromyalgia knowledge in patients with fibromyalgia. A cross-sectional study. We built ten models of predictive variables (schooling, ethnicity, associated diseases, body regions affected by pain, employment status, monthly income, marital status, health level, medication, sports activities, interpersonal relationships, nutrition level, widespread pain, symptom severity, cohabitation, dependent people, number of children, social support, self-care, and fibromyalgia knowledge) and individually tested their explanatory performance to predict mean scores on the Fibromyalgia Knowledge Questionnaire (FKQ), Medical Outcomes Study's Social Support Scale (MOS-SSS), and Appraisal of Self-Care Agency Scale-Revised (ASAS-R). We used analysis of variance to verify the association among all variables of mathematically adjusted models (F-value ≥ 2.20) and we reported only models corrected with p < 0.05 and R2 > 0.20. One hundred and ninety people with fibromyalgia (aged 42.3 ± 9.7years) participated in the study. Our results show that the variables schooling, ethnicity, body regions affected by pain, frequency of sports activities, dependent people, number of children, widespread pain, social support, and self-care determine 27% of the mean FKQ scores. Marital status, self-care, and fibromyalgia knowledge determine 22% of mean MOS-SSS scores. Schooling, ethnicity, employment status, frequency of sports activities, nutrition level, cohabitation, number of children, social support, and fibromyalgia knowledge determine 30% of the mean ASAS-R scores. Studies using mean scores of social support, self-care, and fibromyalgia knowledge should collect and analyze the social variables described in the present study.

A Deep Learning-Based Multimodal Architecture to predict Signs of Dementia

This paper proposes a multimodal deep learning architecture combining text and audio information to predict dementia, a disease which affects around 55 million people all over the world and makes them in some cases dependent people. The system was evaluated on the DementiaBank Pitt Corpus dataset, which includes audio recordings as well as their transcriptions for healthy people and people with dementia. Different models have been used and tested, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for audio classification, Transformers for text classification, and a combination of both in a multimodal ensemble. These models have been evaluated on a test set, obtaining the best results by using the text modality, achieving 90.36% accuracy on the task of detecting dementia. Additionally, an analysis of the corpus has been conducted for the sake of explainability, aiming to obtain more information about how the models generate their predictions and identify patterns in the data.

Contested social care - is there a ‘right’ way? How public investments diminish attitudinal differences towards social care in 34 European countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered the critical nature of social care for modern societies and the moral dilemmas related to the organisation of care, specifically in terms of frail adults. The scarcity of personnel in nursing homes challenged the possibility of adequate care, spurring debates on both the dignity of dependent people and end-of-life treatments. While ‘classical’ social care policies already stimulate conflicts about the ‘right way’ of caring, non-classical care policies, such as assisted dying, are particularly contested. We advance existing research by analysing public attitudes on both care policies jointly and, hence, integrate the literature on morality policy and social care. Based on multi-level analyses, combining individual-level with macro-level data from 34 countries, we uncover that gender and religious identity drive deviating attitudes in both fields, while long-term care expenditure mitigates scepticism among Catholics but less so among Muslims.

Prevalencia y factores de riesgo psicosociales de la depresión en un grupo de adultos mayores en Bogotá

Introducción: la depresión es una enfermedad de alta prevalencia en adultos mayores. En Colombia su prevalencia se ha descrito entre 1,2 a 12% en mayores que viven en comunidad.&#x0D; Objetivo: estimar la prevalencia de depresión en un muestra de adultos mayores de Bogotá y describir los factores de riesgo psicosocial asociados.&#x0D; Material y métodos: se realizó un estudio de corte transversal observacional-descriptivo, en 889 adultos mayores autónomos. La depresión fue evaluada con el test de depresión geriátrica Yesavage y los factores de riesgo con la sección de acontecimientos vitales del cuestionario Predict.&#x0D; Resultados: el 74% de la muestra estuvo constituida por mujeres, la media de edad fue de 72,51 (DS 9,4) años y la escolaridad promedio en años fue de 7,50 (DS 5,64). Así mismo, se estimó una prevalencia de depresión del 18,6%, siendo mayor en mujeres (20%) y (18%) en sujetos entre 70 y 79 años, los adultos con baja escolaridad sumaron un 43%, y el 22% lo constituyeron personas dependientes económicamente. Por otra parte, se encontró relación entre la depresión y cinco de los factores de riesgo psicosocial conocidos como acontecimientos vitales adversos: insomnio, vivir solo, padecer enfermedades crónicas, haber sufrido una crisis económica, y la muerte de un familiar o amigo cercano en el último año.&#x0D; Conclusión: la prevalencia de depresión en un grupo de personas mayores de la comunidad en Bogotá es más alta que lo descrito previamente en Colombia y por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS). Programas que reduzcan la soledad en la vejez y protejan a la mujer y a los mayores con menos escolaridad podrían mitigar esta condición.

Family Care for Dependent Older People at Home: A Comparative Study between Brazil and Colombia

Objective: To analyze the socio-demographic profile and caregiving situation of dependent older adults and their family caregivers in Brazil and Colombia. Method: This mixed comparative and exploratory study follows the comparative study stages proposed by Bereday, namely: Description, interpretation, juxtaposition, and comparison. A semi-structured interview was used. National and international ethical principles were followed in the study, with the ethics committee’s approval in each country. Results: A total of 250 participants were interviewed: 52 dependent older adults in Brazil and 56 in Colombia, along with 70 family caregivers in Brazil and 72 in Colombia. A total of 68.5 % of the elderly and 83.8 % of the caregivers were women. Twelve categories were created based on the participants’ statements, six in the dependent older people and six in the caregivers. Conclusion: Women and daughters were the primary family caregivers, and the Catholic religion was prevalent in both countries. Regarding the caregiving situation in both countries, it stands out that dependent older people and family caregivers feel the presence of a superior being assisting them in overcoming the challenges of caregiving activities.